Panasonic to exit plasma TV panel business by end-March 2014

TOKYO

TOKYO Oct 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp has
decided to pull out of the plasma television panel business by
the end of the current financial year in March 2014, sources
familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.

Panasonic had been expected to exit the struggling
business, although the move was sooner than some analysts had
predicted. Several hundred employees in the plasma operation are
expected to be deployed to other parts of the company, the
sources said.

With the closure of its sole plasma panel factory in
western Japan, Panasonic will book an impairment loss of more
than 40 billion yen ($413 million) on its last remaining factory
building in operation, the sources added.

Panasonic said in a statement that it continued to consider
various options for the plasma display panel business but that
nothing had been decided yet.
($1 = 96.9500 Japanese yen)
(Reporting by Reiji Murai; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by
Edmund Klamann)